Psychological and dogmatic reasons for oral prayer.

Excellent thoughts on verbal prayer can be read in the Russian spiritual writer Theophan Zatvornik. The Church values it because it is necessary for interior prayer; it is like a ladder by which one climbs higher. We cannot command the beginner: “Pray in your own words !” That would be something. This is similar to ordering someone who has not yet studied a language to speak, for example, French. He must first repeat memorized sentences; only then will he learn to speak fluently. Inner prayer is the fruit. The plant, however, must rather have leaves and flowers.

“All the great teachers of prayer …have first laid down a kind of rule. They began by setting certain prayers, and only then, when the time was right, did they begin to pray freely.” There is, of course, the danger of formalism, of mindless renunciation of other people’s words. This is not avoided by discarding form. “Do not throw away the forms,” writes Theophanes, “but revive them, give them spirit! ” But another reason, dogmatic, is also given. He who prays connect his words with the words of Christ praying to the Father. The Savior’s words are then powerful, being a force at work in the world, creating and transforming the face of the earth. In the complete sense of the word, this is true of the terms of the sacramental prayers (“I absolve you… ” “This is my body…”). However, they derive their power from the sacraments and other prayers, especially priestly prayers.

As Gogol writes in his Meditations on the Divine Liturgy, these are a double-edged sword that intervenes in the struggle of life. According to John of Kronstadt, then, “the holy words… are living water, flowing water; the word flows like water, the water then refreshes and revitalizes the body. The holy word also quickens, fills the world and the soul with joy, gentleness, pity for sins.” The problem of the power of the word in connection with prayer was of interest to Eastern theologians of this century, e.g. S. Bulgakov. The word is like an acoustic image of thought. Holy images then, in a mysterious way…in a weird way, they make present what they represent. Western authors also speak in favor of oral prayer. Thus writes, e.g., Karl Rahner: “Every religious act has an integral, integral structure. Therefore, even verbal prayer and repetition of a fixed prayer formula have a positive meaning.In this way, one experiences the relationship to God in all dimensions, dimensions. ”